Bengal school job case: Calcutta HC likely to decide on Partha Chatterjee's bail plea today

IANS, Kolkata, Dec 24, 2024 : A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court is likely to pronounce the verdict on the bail petition filed by former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress' ex-general secretary Partha Chatterjee in the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

Although the hearing in the matter was concluded on December 17, the single judge bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty reserved its judgement. Earlier on November 20, a division bench of Justice Arijit Bandopadhya and Justice Apruba Sinha Roy delivered a split judgement on the bail petition by Chatterjee and eight others accused in the case.

While Justice Bandopadhya pronounced in favour of bail for Chatterjee and eight others accused in the case, Justice Sinha Roy rejected the same for Chatterjee and four others.

Thereafter the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice allotted the case to the bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty. The detailed hearing in the case was completed on December 17.

Two parallel cases are going on against the former state minister, one registered by the CBI and the other by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Chatterjee was arrested in July 2022 by the ED after huge amounts of cash and gold were recovered from the twin residences of his close aide Arpita Mukherjee. Since then, a solitary cell at Presidency Central Correctional Home became his abode and his bail petitions one after another were rejected at different courts. Mukherjee has been in judicial custody since then.

Recently, a division bench of the Supreme Court granted conditional bail to Chatterjee in the ED-registered case. However, recently the CBI also showed him as arrested in the same case following which Chatterjee’s counsel approached the Calcutta High Court with the bail petition.

The CBI has also already complained to the court accusing the West Bengal government of delaying the necessary approval from the state which is required for its employees.